Nightmares
by spiritofwolf
Summary: A one-night camping trip, and four different nightmares, which may not be that different after all. T for scenes of mild violence.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own DP.

* * *

He sees four shapes, curled up in sleep next to a smouldering campfire. One is twitching and moaning in his sleep, eyes opening and shutting unseeingly to reveal a green, ethereal glow. Another has her fists scrunched up tight, biting down on her lip so hard that blood has welled out to mix with her purple lipstick. Yet another has her fiery hair in disarray, tossing and turning with an occasional small cry. The last has tear tracks down his cheeks, and a hand reaches out pleadingly.

Four different characters. A hero, a Goth, a caring sister, and a techno-geek. Four different lives, thrown together for better or worse. One would think that only the green-eyed hero would have these nightmares; for that is what a hero lives with, is it not? But the cloaked figure watching knew, that all of them had their own nightmares, and he knew with his ageless soul that they were too young to have to deal with this.

But he also knew that upon these four shoulders rested the balance of time itself.

So he watched, while the four wrestled with their demons in the cold wilderness.


	2. Danny

Disclaimer: I do not own DP.

* * *

Danny floated in his ghost form before a mirror. Reaching a hand out, he gently touched the cold surface, watching the hand in the mirror as it copied his movement. Shifting his gaze, he looked into his eyes- red as spilled blood-

But no, he thought with a sinking heart. No, his eyes were green, ectoplasmic green-

His reflection gave him a mocking grin, displaying sharpened fangs and a forked tongue. His hair twisted into tendrils of flame, while the once-blank background behind him burst into a hellish scene, of the rubble of buildings and the merry sign "Welcome to Amity Park! A nice place to live!" broken and sending up smoke, of hellfire licking the blackened sky, of the screams of millions upon millions, piercing his ears and stabbing his heart, pain and loss and anger and fear coursing through his veins, burning, burning...

With the blink of an eye, the reflection became reality, and he was frozen in horror as his future self grabbed his throat with a clawed hand, immobilizing him and leaving him helpless to interfere as a Ghostly Wail devastated what was left of Amity Park.

"You're gone," he choked, finally gaining the presence of mind to struggle in his captor's grip. "You're gone, I sealed you, you're in the Thermos-"

"But I am you, Daniel." The demon hissed, drawing Danny close. "So it is you who is trapped, and evidently you have escaped- or the part of you that revels in destruction has. I was not the one to give that Ghostly Wail."

And with no small amount of rising terror, Danny realized that Dan was right, that the wave of spectral energy had come from his mouth, that he was the one who-

Danny screamed, the cry catching in his throat like a bramble. His older self chuckled, shocking him with ectoplasm until he turned back into a human, and he was allowed to fall, the wind rushing past his ears.

And in the wind, the malicious voice whispered, tantalizing, tempting. "I am inevitable, Danny. Remember that."

Images flashed across his eyes, memories he was sure he had not gained himself- Dash Baxter's face, contorted with fear, blood streaming out of every possible hole, the smiling face of a little girl crushed into a cliff face, his hands and jaws streaming with blood as he flew and laughed, a high-pitched, echoing laugh, an explosion tinged with green that levelled Vlad's Wisconsin mansion, his own clawed hands reaching, intangible, into his human half's body and literally tearing out his heart, licking and sucking up the blood, giggling as though drunk on the liquid of life...

With a strangled yell, Danny woke up.


	3. Jazz

Disclaimer: I do not own DP.

* * *

A scream echoed from the basement, spectral and full of pain.

Jazz Fenton thought that she knew her fears, how to control them, how to face them. But then again, sometimes the deepest fears hide from the rational mind, and come back to haunt her- in the form of her baby brother being tortured by their very own parents.

Phantom shrieked and writhed, muscles working involuntarily as they jerked him back and forth in his restraints. He gained a brief respite when the electric current slackened, but before he could open his mouth, he was yelling again, even more volts jolting through his form than before while Maddie Fenton stood by taking down figures with a cool, collected face.

Jack Fenton lowered the voltage yet again, looking to his wife for a nod or a shake of her head. Phantom gasped, trembling. "P-please..." Maddie nodded, and the lab was once more filled with inhuman screams.

Jazz willed her limbs to move, her mouth to speak, anything to stop the torture her brother was enduring, but she felt as though she was stuck in limbo, unable to so much as twitch an eyelid, watching and trying not to retch while Jack increased the voltage, each turn of the knob tearing increasingly wilder screams from their subject.

Finally, the screams stopped, and two rings formed around Phantom's waist, turning him back to Danny Fenton in front of their parents' eyes. He was barely breathing, and in the shocked silence that followed, Jazz could hear a final rattling breath, then his chest stopped moving, and the Fentons' world fell apart.

Sobbing, Jazz jolted awake.


	4. Sam

Disclaimer: I do not own DP.

* * *

Sam was in the FentonWorks lab, cowering in a corner as Danny screamed.

_It was her fault_, her mind was frantic, scrambling to reboot- _all her fault, Danny wouldn't have gone in if she didn't ask him to-_

And it was true; Danny had always been wrapped around her little finger. If it was Tucker who had asked, Danny would have just laughed, teased him a little about his PDA, maybe even offer to smuggle one of his parents' inventions out for the techno-geek to fiddle with- but Tucker wasn't the only one to ask, and as soon as she opened her mouth, she had known that he would do it, and now it was all her fault that Danny was trapped in the Portal, screaming like the world was ending.

But he didn't come out as a white-haired, green-eyed phantom. This time, when the electric current had run its course, when the green mist had stabilized, a figure came tumbling back out of the Portal- but it wasn't the familiar face of Phantom that she saw, but the dead, badly-burnt face of Danny Fenton.

And there was someone screaming, screaming so loudly as Sam rushed over to lift Danny away from the Portal, to shake him, tell him to wake up-

Oh. She was the one who was screaming. Logically she knew she should shut up, but her mouth seemed to be ignoring her brain, forcing the words out:

"Danny! Please, Danny, wake up! This isn't happening! You were supposed to turn into Phantom, it was all supposed to turn out okay, please-"

"Danny!"

With that final word she woke up.


	5. Tucker

Tucker was hell to write- I don't think I've ever read a good fic where it's from Tucker's point of view. I'm assuming that the Pharaoh outfit has jewellry, and stuff. Purposefully ambiguous about the descriptions, since I don't want to contradict canon unintentionally too much. And yeah, Tuck is still hell to write.

Disclaimer: I do not own DP.

* * *

For Tucker, his PDA couldn't have been further from his mind.

After all, it was hard to think of anything at all when your two best and only friends were lying dead in front of you.

He closed his eyes tightly, holding back a sob that was threatening to burst out. Regardless of what he might say he wanted- girls, popularity, technology- he knew that deep inside, all he really wanted- no, needed- was for his two best friends to be with him. And now, confronted with the all-too-real fear that one day, he might be the only one left-

To put it simply, he could vaguely sympathise with Dan Phantom now.

And when he opened his eyes again, instead of his bare hands, he saw the jewellery and ancient regalia of a Pharaoh of Egypt, and the familiar sceptre gripped firmly in his blood- and ecto-stained fists.

Horrified, he threw the sceptre away, falling to his knees to scrub his hands furiously against the ground, but the blood stayed, and as he looked up, tears falling from his eyes, the two bodies had faded away, leaving two pairs of eyes, blue and purple, to stare at him, lost and accusing.

"No, guys, please-" He reached a hand out beseechingly to them, but the eyes closed, and he was alone with blood on his hands, and a hole in his heart. "Danny! Sam! _No!_"

He awoke.


	6. Epilogue

Sappy ending, but bleh. I'm a sucker for happy endings.

Disclaimer: I do not own DP.

* * *

The four teens were now awake.

Shaking, Danny was faintly green in the face. Staggering to his feet, he tried to move to the bushes, but collapsed with one step and started retching on the spot.

Jazz, instincts kicking in before her mind was fully functional, was by his side in an instant. Stroking his back, she whispered soothing words, not knowing if she was comforting Danny or herself. When he was done, she hugged him tightly, disregarding the vomit that was smearing her shirt, squeezing him as though she was afraid to ever let him go again.

At the same moment, Tucker had grabbed Sam's hand. The Goth, who was about to dart over to Danny, paused at the tight, trembling grip to look at her friend. Tucker was crying, and not even trying to put it down to dust in his eye to preserve his 'manly pride'.

"Sam," he choked, eyes wide and scared, looking straight into Sam's guilty and startled orbs. "You- Danny-"

Then without a warning, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders in an embrace, shuddering like a handphone ringing on silent mode, and whimpered, desperately: "Don't leave me."

Sam, although alarmed at this display of emotion from her normally-perky friend, managed to hug him back as best as she could with her shoulders trapped by his arms. Almost guiltily, her eyes roved over to Danny, as though assuring herself that he was still there.

When the boys had calmed down, they all returned to sit by the now-dead fire. Tucker gave Danny a rough hug, which was returned with an almost-equal ferocity.

They then sat like that until the dawn; looking into each other's eyes, finding the same horrors contained within, and comforting each other with a warm glance, haunted by their personal demons that were all so similar.

And with the breaking of the first ray of light into the darkened morning sky, a soft voice intoned, "Time out."

* * *

Clockwork emerged from the portal, taking an intense look at each of their faces.

Danny Fenton's, eyes dark with the knowledge of what might happen if he ever lost his humanity.

Sam Manson's, guilt-stricken with the burden of causing one of her best friend's half-death.

Jazz Fenton's, brows creased into an almost-permanent frown, worrying about all of them, but especially her little brother.

Tucker Foley, fearful of being alone, eyes that were still flickering to each of his companions to ensure that they were still there before time stopped.

Four teenagers, their lives thrown into turmoil, experiencing things no adult ever should, shoulders holding the burden that no child ever should, and all four still holding strong like no normal human ever could.

Then the time-keeper did something he had never done before- wiping an escaping tear from Tucker's eyes, smoothing Jazz's brows into a more relaxed position, he gave each of them a hug that was full of the pride and warmth that he felt inside for each and every one of them.

Escaping back into his portal, he smiled. "Time in."

And although nothing seemed to have happened in that split second, to each of the members of Team Phantom, it was as though they had gained a warmth in their hearts, where previously it was filled with fear and horror.

Danny changed into Phantom with a light smile, which Sam unknowingly imitated. Jazz packed up their sleeping bags, her face now uncreased by a frown. Tucker plastered his I-know-I'm-good smirk back on, and they all held a hand up to Danny, who took them, and they flew back in the direction of Amity Park, leaving the dark sky and nightmares behind.


End file.
